Nancy Werlin

When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both.

a novel

Impossible

Sarah Sammis

Impossible by Nancy Werlin was on my wishlist because I love the song "Scarborough Affair." I was curious to see how it could be expanded into a YA novel.

For the most part I loved the book but it takes a couple chapters to find its voice. The book starts out like a typical YA novel with a pair of girls in high school chitchatting about boys and other mundane stuff. Unfortunately this part is weakly written, including a laughable scene involving too many people stuffed into a Mini. Had the book continued on these lines, I would have tossed it aside. You can easily skip all these wasted pages and go to the prom scene.

The rest of the book unfolds from Lucy coming to terms with what happened at the prom and trying to break the curse she is now under. While the curse is a very real threat to Lucy and has been a curse passed down through the generations, it's also a dark, metaphorical look at teenage pregnancy.

Like Bumped, Impossible would do well in a high school English course. The way the folk song is interpreted can be one approach to analyzing the book. Date rape, teenage pregnancy and single parenting can also be discussed. As with Bumped I suggest putting it alongside The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawtorne.

When Lucy discovers that her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she also finds out that she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to break the curse and save them both.

A nice sort of fairytale, mixing old and new. 

Jeg synes forfatteren har tatt fantasy ett skritt bort fra “jente blir forelsket i overnaturlig bad boy”-malen og heller skrevet om normale, menneskelige kjærlighetsforhold. Men boka er likevel ei fantasybok -- en alveridder er med, for eksempel. I tillegg tar den opp et veldig aktuelt tema; tenåringsgraviditet. Jeg la merke til at de ikke har nevnt noe om det i sammendraget bak på coveret, og det syntes jeg var litt rart. Det er jo det som hele handlingen er basert rundt! Det kan kanskje ha noe med at tenåringer ikke er like interesserte i slike temaer -- jeg vet ikke? Jeg syntes det ble litt rart å ikke nevne det.
 Boka er lettlest. Jeg leste den ut på to dager. Språket er ikke særlig vanskelig, men det føles ikke som om du leser ei bok skrevet av en tenåring.
 Det eneste negative jeg vil trekke fram er at handlingen av og til tar store hopp fram i tid, uten at man riktig får med seg hvor lenge og hva som har skjedd i mellomtiden. Jeg ble litt forvirret over det, av og til.
 Men ellers er det ei fin bok som absolutt er verdt å lese!

Danielle H.

Really good book. Don't want to say too much and spoil it, but I will say its definitely on the top of my favorite books. Beautifully written, with just the right amount of fantasy and real life situations all in one. At some parts sad, and heart-wrenching, but at other times its happy and so on. Real page turner, read it in a day, was angry eveytime I had to put it down. Never a dull moment. But everyone has their opinion. Read the book for yourselves. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Impossible a novel

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